Illinois Tells Mormons It Regrets Expulsion

By MELISSA SANFORD

Published: April 8, 2004

SALT LAKE CITY, April 7 — Illinois officials came to this predominantly Mormon city Wednesday to apologize for the expulsion of the faith's earliest members and the killing of its founder.

"The murder of Joseph Smith and the expulsions of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a time we are not proud of," Representative Daniel J. Burke of the Illinois House said in a meeting with Gov. Olene S. Walker of Utah and Mormon leaders at the church administration building.

The meeting was held in a room with towering columns, marble walls and gilded molding. There, Illinois's lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn, presented church leaders a copy of House Resolution 793, which expressed "official regret" for the violence and state-sanctioned condemnation that caused the Mormons to leave in 1846 on the trek that led them to Utah.

An earlier draft of the resolution asked the Mormons for their "pardon and forgiveness," but the language was weakened at the behest of Illinois lawmakers who said they could not ask forgiveness for acts they had not personally committed.

The events that led to Wednesday's meeting began in 1839, when the Mormons, having fled persecution in Missouri (and before that in New York and Ohio), founded the Mississippi River town of Nauvoo, Ill. The town prospered, but its rapid growth and strong voting power, along with further religious bias, drew outsiders' antagonism.

Smith was also besieged by dissension within the church. As mayor of the town, he ordered the suppression of the dissidents and, when violence resulted, called out the Nauvoo militia. The Illinois authorities arrested him and his brother Hyrum on charges of treason and conspiracy, and jailed them in the town of Carthage. A mob stormed the jail on June 27, 1844, and killed the brothers. Expulsion followed two years later.

The idea for the new resolution dates from a ski trip that Anne Burke, an Illinois appellate justice who is the sister of Representative Burke, took to Utah. At a dinner party there, she chatted with Governor Walker's husband, Myron, who told her his great-grandfather had been expelled from Illinois because of his religion. Justice Burke had never heard of the expulsion.

"I could not get over that this kind of religious persecution happened and this was not so long ago," she said in an interview after Wednesday's ceremony. "Myron Walker knew his great-grandfather."

When Justice Burke returned home, she learned that Illinois had never issued an apology to the Mormons. She contacted her brother, who co-sponsored the resolution with Representative Jack D. Franks.

"For somebody to hear my great-grandfather's story and pick up on it in the manner she has is very meaningful to me," Mr. Walker said. "I'm overwhelmed by a feeling of good will that has been extended by the people of Illinois."

Illinois is now home to 50,000 Mormons. They rebuilt their Nauvoo temple in 2002, and more than 300,000 people a year visit the town. Thomas Monson, a leader of the church, said that with this resolution, he expected even more tourism there.

"We are going to see an epic trend of people making the reverse trek to Nauvoo," Mr. Monson said.

The church's president, Gordon B. Hinckley, did not attend the ceremony; his wife of 67 years, Marjorie, died Tuesday evening. He was represented at the gathering by Mr. Monson and another church leader, James Faust.

"We view this resolution," Mr. Faust said, "as an affirmation that Nauvoo is a place of peace and an affirmation that Latter-day Saints will always have a place in Illinois."

Correction: April 23, 2004, Friday

An article on April 8 about an apology by the state of Illinois for expelling Mormons in 1846 misstated the relationship between Anne Burke, an Illinois appellate justice, and Representative Daniel J. Burke, who were instrumental in bringing about the apology. They are sister-in-law and brother-in-law, not sister and brother.